Alice B. Grist

I just had the most wonderful holiday. I'm exhausted. What is that about? Well I guess that is about having an 11 month old baby girl who will not conform to a hotel's schedule, or to anyone else's for that matter! And who said holidays should be about laying horizontally and absorbing nowt but sunrays? As much as I would have loved a little bit of laying around with a good book. It was not to be. This holiday brought other things to me.

It brought the kindness and love of strangers. Watching on as all of Tunisia serenaded and fussed my daughter as though she were the Queen.

It brought me an appreciation of my life in comparison to that of the very poorest of the poor. I speak of those who hang around hotels making a 'nuisance' of themselves with the tourists. I felt heavy with sympathy and a whole lot of gratitude that I have never had to beg, never had to expose a cancerous lump in my throat to strangers in the hope they may throw me a few pennies. We may well choose our lives before we come to this planet. We may each choose our lessons to learn. But by goddess does that spiritual line of thought not matter a damn jot when confronted with suffering. I am realigned in my life and brimming with graciousness.

My holiday, too, brought me closer to my loved ones. My little girl demanded my full attention, and whilst that is fairly usual, she needed more. And so I let her have it. In essence releasing any chance of my relaxing so that she might feel happy and content and so that her little teeth would not cause her too much pain. My husband, who works long hours, reacclimatised himself to the world of Momma and Ivy and we learned to appreciate each other once again. We found our Sync again, and it feels nice.

So it seems to me that holidays are not so much about relaxing. Well not for the next 16 years for me! They are about rediscovering that which we already know. We leave our ordinary life, so that we might reacquaint ourselves with the inner us, and the souls of our beloveds. And yes, that has left me exhausted. But I would relive it a million times over before I swapped it for a sunbed and sangria!